It’s no secret that the recession has hit us all hard, but while the big galleries and Art House’s report large sales and growing demand, the rest of the art world is finding life a lot harder. The impact of this could have drastic and far reaching repercussions for the rest of the art world and art investors with a smaller budget. How will this change affect artists trying to establish themselves and the galleries that house their works?

For many artists, it is often that first gallery willing to take a chance on them and hang their work, which help to establish them as a professional artist and set them on the road to becoming a renowned name. It is therefore worrying that now more than ever, these small to middling galleries are shutting their doors for good. Without these galleries, many artists may struggle competing in a market saturated with other works, particularly online where some professional and skilled works can get lost in a sea of amateur works. Without this influx of talent travelling into such galleries, the ecology of the art world could be warped into something completely unrecognisable, with no room for artists to move up the ladder the top of echelons of the artistic world could stagnate with no room for newcomers and same works being endlessly churned out by the old elite.

For art investors, specifically those on a lower budget, this change could completely squeeze them out of the market, with little growth coming from the lower end and top end out of reach to them. The small to middling galleries offer the chance to pick up new works from emerging talent and the chance to watch their investment grow. Here at the Gallery, works sold by Xue Wang have grown from £1000 when she first arrived, up to £3000 only a couple of years later; fantastic news for both investor and artist.

These risk taking galleries are the pioneers of the art world and should not be overlooked or forgotten about; it is at this level that fresh and enigmatic works are separated from the ordinary. We must not forget their importance to the art world as whole, as without them the fluidity and originality which makes the art markets so dynamic could be changed irreparably.